R  K  P  o  n  T 


0  F     T  11  E 


BOARD   OF    AGRICULTURE 


TO     T  H  K 


CALIFORNIA  STATE  AGRICULTURAL  SOCIETY, 


A  T     T  II  K 

ANNUAIj     MEETJN(^, 

January  26,  1865, 

WTll   A   -iVNOl-^r-^  111"  THE  l'ROCKKDIN(iS  OV  THE  ANNUAL    AlKETTXf: 
\\I)  A    MKKTINi;  nv  TTTK  TIOARK. 


vS  A  C  II  AMEN  T  O  : 

1!^    rUOCKKll  fc  CO.,  nUNTERS,  1)2  J   STRKET, 


REPORT 


Of     TOE 


BOARD   OF   AGRICULTURE 


TO     T  H  B 


CALIFORMIA  STATE  AGRICULTORAL  SOCIETY, 


iT     TH 


ANNUAL    MEETING, 


January  26,  1865, 


WTH    A  SYNOPSIS   OP   THE   PROCEEDINQS   OP  THE  ANNUAL   MEETING, 
AND  A  MEETING  OP  THE  BOARD. 


SACl^AMENTO: 

II.  8.  CROCKER  &   CO.,  PRINTERS,  92  J  STREET, 

18(35. 


STATE   BOAEB   OF  AGEICULTUEE,  FOR   18G5. 


President, 
C.  F.  REED Grafton,  Yolo  County 

Direetors, 
C.  T.  "Wheeler Sacramento 

John  H.  Carroll Sacramento 

ElfGAR  Mills Sacramento 

B.  R.  Crocker Sacramento 

T.  L.  Chamberlain ..Placer 

"W.  P.  Coleman Sacramento 

A.  G.  Richardson Sacramento 

Robert  Beck Sacramento 

E.  J.  Walsh Colusa 

OFFICERS  OF  THE  BOARD 

Secretary, 
I.  N.  H.OAG Yolo — P.  0.  Sacramento 

Treasurer, 
R.  T.  Brown Sacramento 

Chemist  and  Metallurgist, 
Dr.  R.  Oxland,  F.  C.  S San  Francisco 

Geologist, 
Prof.  J.  D.  "Whitney San  Francisco 

Meteorologist, 
T.  M.  Logan,  M.  D Sacramento 

Zoologist, 
J.  G.  Cooper,  M.D San  Francisco 

Entomologist, 
H.  Behr,  M.  D San  Francisco 

Botanists, 

A.  Kellogg,  M.  D San  Francisco 

Prof.  H.  isT.  Borlander San  Francisco 

Annual  Address  for  1865,  by 
JOHN   F.  MORSE,  M.  D ^. San  Francisco 


•  •     ••       •        • 

■        •  *  C    4 


*        t*        «      ,©••••♦•  ••  •        0        •      •• 

i      u  •  c  ••••••«•••  /.,.  


••   •••    • '    •••  !••  •      * 

t    •  r  ••*   •  • .  • 


to 

era 


>- 


'*  ^l{ 


,< 


f 


REPORT 


Gentlemen: — This  being  tlie  year  in  which  no  report  to  tlie 
Governor  is  required  by  hiw,  the  Board  will  reserve  a  more  de- 
tailed report  of  the  year's  transactions  until  the  proper  time  shall 
an-ive,  and  proceed  to  give  to  the  members  of  the  Society  a  brief 
account  of  their  stewardship,  and  to  make  such  suggestions  and 
recommendations  as  their  experience  and  the  condition  of  the 
Society  and  the  State  seem  to  demand. 

One  year  ago,  when  we  assumed  charge  of  the  affairs  of  the 
Society,  it  was  at  the  close  of  a  year  of  prosperity  to  all  classes 
of  indUjStr}^  in  the  State.  The  agriculturist  had  been  blessed 
with  a  plentiful  harvest,  which  had  enabled  and  induced  him  to 
^  prepare  for  an  extensive  field  of  operations,  with  bright  hopes 
~  that  his  renewed  efforts  would  again  be  crowned  with  success. 
The  miner,  in  addition  to  extracting  from  the  placer  deposits 
and  quartz  ledges  the  usual  quantities  of  the  precious  metals,  had 
'^'  extended  his  discoveries  and  developed  new  regions  of  unusual 
r  .  richness,  and  was  confident  in  the  prospect  of  a  year  of  unequaled 
~;  prosperity.  The  mechanic,  the  manufacturer,  and  all  other 
If-  classes  of  the  community  dependent  on  the  two  former  for  en- 
[  couragement  and  support,  had  received  a  corresponding  iin]iulsc 
and  were  looking  forward  lo  the  new  year  cheered  with  confi- 
dence and  hope. 

Undtr  the  judicious  and  economical  management  of  our  imme- 
diate predecessors,  the  financial  cojidition  of  the  Society  had 
been  much  improved.  A  portion  of  a  large  debt  which  had  been 
allowed  to  accumulate  against  the  Society  during  a  series  of 
previous  years  had  been  canceled.  A  change  of  administration 
had,  to  a  certain  extent,  checked  the  increasing  dissatisfaction 
and  want  of  confidence,  so  prevalent  in  the  community  toward 
the  Society  and  its  management.  Under  these  circumstances, 
and  with  reliant  expectation  of  material  aid  from  the  State, 
the  Board  met  on  the  9th  of  February,  and  by  unanimous  vote 
resolved  to  hold  a  general  Fair  of  every  Department  of  Industry 
of  the  State  in  the  Ibllowing  September. 

The  Legislature,  then  in  session,  contrary  to  our  expectations, 
and,  as  we  think,  acting  upon  a  very  short-sighted  policy,  with- 
held the  usual  appropriation  for  the  payment  of  premiums.     Tho 


370559 


much  lioped-for  rains,  -wliicli  liad  been  deferred  during  the  ^Vin- 
ter,  failed  to  fall  in  the  Spring,  and  it  soon  become  very  evident 
that  all  the  industrial  interests  of  the  State,  which  had  but  a 
short  time  before  seemed  so  promising,  must  suffer  materially,  if 
not  prove  to  a  great  extent  a  failure.  \_JChe  Board,  therefore, 
rather  than  risk  a  general  Fair,  with  so  poor  a  prospect  of  a  cred- 
itable exhibition,  and  with  almost  a  certainty  of  a  financial  dis- 
aster, reconsidered  its  former  action,  and  determined  to  conform 
its  operations  strictly  and  rigidly  to  the  circumstances  in  which 
the  State  and  the  Society  were  placed.  The  law,  however,  es- 
tablishing the  Society  and  creating  the  Board  of  Agriculture  and 
defining  its  duties,  as  well  as  the  tenui'e  by  which  the  Society 
holds  some  of  its  most  valuable  p)roperty,  required  that  a  Fair  of 
some  description  should  be  held.  In  an  ordinary  season,  to  select 
one  branch  of  industry,  however  attractive  or  imporfantT-anti  be- 
stow upon  it  the  patronage  and  encouragement  of  the  Society,  to 
the  neglect  of  all  others,  would  be  as  unwise  on  the  part  pf  the 
Board,  as  it  would  be  unjust  to  those  branches  neglected.  The 
effects  of  the  drought,  however,  tipon  the  cereals,  and  all  the 
various  crops  of  the  husbandman  ;  the  scarcity  of  grazing  for 
stock,  comyjelling  the  owiiers  of  cattle  and  sheep  to  drive  their 
herds  and  flocks  to  distant  portions  of  the  State  and  out  of  the 
State  for  subsistence  ;  the  empty  treasury  of  the  Society  and  the 
general  scarcity  of  inoney  among  the  peoj^le,  admonishing  the 
Board  of  the  propriety  of  a  light  bill  of  expenses,  all  plainly  in- 
dicated the  character  the  Fair  should  assume  in  order  to  render 
it,  even  in  one  department,  a  success. 

It  was  evident  that  no  other  course  than  the  one  pursued 
could,  with  safety  to  the  existence  and  future  prosperity  of  the 
Society,  be  adopted,  and  even  as  to  this,  the  Board  was  in  doubt. 

At  this  period  of  affairs,  the  citizens  of  Sacramento,  with  a  lib- 
erality equaled  only  by  their  enterprise  and  perseverance,  came 
forward  and,  by  subscription,  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Board 
over  five  thousand  dollars,  to  be  awarded  as  purses  and  premi- 
ums for  a  horse  show. 

The  sum  of  six  thousand  nine  hundred  and  thii'ty  dollars  were 
offered  in  premiums  and  purses,  so  distributed  as  to  render  the 
exhibition  a  feature  of  atti-action  and  a  lesson  of  usefulness  to  the 
admirers  of  all  classes  of  horses,  from  the  sturdy  draught,  to  the 
fleet  and  beautiful  tlioroughbred.  All  preparations  were  careful- 
ly, economically  and  well  completed,  and  the  Fair  was  held.  It 
proved  a  success  in  every  respect  beyond  the  most  sanguine  ex- 
pectations of  the  Board.  The  maxim  that  "  whatever  is  worth 
doing  at  all,  is  worth  doing  well,"  having  been  adopted  in  the 
beginning,  it  was  strictly  adhered  to  in  every  particular.  The 
very  liberality  of  the  purses,  and  premiums  offered,  gave  tone 
and  character  to  the  exhibition.  The  high  value  of  the  stakes 
to  be  lost  or  won  gave  cvciybod}*  the  impression  that  tlie  Fair 


must  be  a  ijrand  sncceisis,  and  no  one  went  away  disappointed  or  -.^^ 
dissatisfied.     The  superior  grade  an<l  quality  of  the  stock  on     , 
exhil»iti(»u,  indicates  the  certain  a)id  positive  iin|n'Oveinent  we  ai'o 
)iiakiiig  in  this  ver}'  iin])oi"taiil  imuich  of  agriculture.     The  game 
and  speed  exhibited  by  the  California-bred  contestants  for  purses, 
both  in  trotting  and  running  i-jices,  places  Califtrnia  jjroudly 
upon  the  turf  record,  by  the  side  of,  if  not  in  advance  of  any 
other  State  in  the  Union.     Indeed,  we  think  we  may  be  pcrmii- 
ted  to  say  that  the  Fair  of  the  State  Agricultural  Society  of  \ 
lSt»4,  taking  all  things  into  consideration,  has  formed  oneoi'tho 
brightest  pages  in  the  history  of  the  turf,  and  very  prominently 
foreshadows  n^any  brighter  ones  for  our  State  and  the  Society  I 
in  the  future.  - 

While  we  congratulate  the  members  of  the  Society  npon  the 
many  happy  and  useful  lessons  of  the  Fair  as  an  exhibition,  we 
are  also  glad  to  bo  able  to  inform  them  that,  notwithstanding  the 
extreme  unfavorableness  of  the  season,  it  has  proved  an  unprece- 
dented financial  success.  Every  premium  and  purse  were 
promptly  paid  as  soon  as  awarded  or  won,  and  even  more  than 
were  ottered.  Every  item  of  expense  made  and  audited  by  the 
Board  has  been  promptly  and  satisfactorily  canceled.  The  hand- 
some sum  of  $8,412  72  of  the  old  in<lebtedness  of  the  Society  has 
been  discharged,  leaving  the  present  indebtedness,  including 
interest  to  January  13th,  S11.384  Go,  against  S2(),478  5G  on  the 
12th  day  of  March,  18G3,  when  the  Board  of  Agriculture  was  or- 
ganized  and  the  affairs  of  the  Society  were  placed  in  its  hands. 

AVhen  we  take  into  consideration  the  embarrassing  circum- 
stances, both  pecuniarily  and  otherwise,  in  which  the  Society 
was  found  to  be  at  that  time,  and  the  difficulties  it  has  encoun- 
tered and  overcome  since,  and  that  it  has  still  been  able  to  work 
out,  in  less  than  two  yeai'S,  this  substantial  financial  result,  and 
retrain  to  so  large  an  extent  the  confidence  and  y;ood  will  of  the 
community,  we  are  forced  to  the  conviction  that,  with  the  enor- 
merous  recei])ts  of  former  j^ears,  the  Society  should  to-day  liave 
occupied  a  very  different  position  among  the  useful  institutions 
of  the  State,  from  the  one  in  which  we  find  it.  Instead  of  being 
poor  and  its  enei-gies  crippled  Avith  the  incumbrance  of  a  large 
debt,  it  should  have  been  in  the  enjoj'ment  of  such  means  jind 
facilities  as  would  have  enabled  it  to  exert  a  powerful  intluenco 
in  the  direction  and  development  of  all  the  material  interests  of 
the  State. 

The  mineral  cabinet  of  the  Society  has  not  received  so  great 
accessions  during  the  last,  as  during  the  preceding  year,  owing 
to  the  general  depression  of  the  mining  interest,  following  the 
unheallliy  excitement  of  1802  and  18G3.  However,  many  valu- 
altle  specimens  have  been  added  to  the  collection.  The  Amador 
County  Agricultural  Society  has  donated  a  cabinet  of  over  two 
thousand  specimens,  mostly  from  the  valuable  copper  mines  of 


that  county.  And  Amador  claims,  and  is  entitled  to  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  the  banner  county  of  the  State,  as  regards  con- 
tributions to  the  State  Society's  Cabinet. 

Most  of  the  newspapers  and  periodicals  of  the  State,  with  a  liber- 
ality not  shown  by  the  press  in  any  other  part  of  the  world,  have 
continued  to  furnish  theSocicty.with  theirregularissues.  All  these 
have  been  carefully  filed  away  and  preserved,  and  when  bound 
will  constitute  an  invaluable  portion  of  the  Society's  library.  It 
will  contain  a  most  complete  general  and  local  history  of  the 
State  and  its  interests.  The  contributors  arc  entitled  to  the 
thanks  of  the  Board  and  the  Society.  And  here  we  would  also 
say  that  the  California  Steam  Navigation  Company,  Wells,  Far- 
go &  Co.,  and  the  various  stage  and  railroad  companies  in  the 
State,  have,  by  their  uniform  liberality,  placed  the  Society  under 
lasting  obligations.  Valuable  contributions  of  statistical  reports 
of  various  departments  of  the  CTcneral  Government  have  been 
received  from  our  Senator,  John  Conness,  and  Eepresentatives 
Hi'gby,  Cole  and  Shannon.  The  Society  has  also  been  the  medi- 
um of  the  above  named  parties  and  Isaac  Newton,  Commissioner 
of  Agriculture  at  Washington,  for  the  distribution  of  a  large 
number  of  the  annual  and  bi-monthly  reports  of  the  Agricultural 
Department,  as  also  of  many  varieties  of  new^  and  valuable  seeds. 
The  latter  have  been  given  out  to  parties  who  have  promised  to 
exhibit  the  jiroducts,  by  sample,  at  the  succeeding  Fair;  but 
owing  to  the  drought,  very  few  of  those  distributed  last  Spring 
have  been  heard  from.  No  seeds,  except  a  few  packages  of 
wheat,  have  been  received  yet  this  season.  Vegetable  seeds  are 
usually  received  too  late  for  use  the  same  year,  and  hence  many 
varieties  are  damaged  by  age.  The  attention  of  the  Department 
has  been  called  to  this  fact. 

We  are  under  obligations  to  B.  B.  Eedding,  Secretary  of  State, 
for  Statutes  of  1863-4;  to  W.  C.  Stratton,  State  Librarian,  for 
Journals  and  Appendix  of  the  Assembly  and  Senate  ;  and  to  C. 
W.  Wyraan,  of  Massachusetts,  for  six  volumes  of  the  Transac- 
tions of  the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Agriculture — a  valua- 
able  contribution. 

The  Society's  reports  for  1863  have  be.en  published  and 
distributed  throughout  our  own  State,  and  many  copies  mailed 
to  leading  journals  and  agricultural  and  other  industrial  societies 
in  the  Atlantic  States  and  Europe.  Correspondence  has  also  been 
opened  with  these  institutions,  with  direct  reference  to  increas- 
ing the  size  and  usefulness  of  our  library,  and  the  Board  confi- 
dently anticipates  satisfactory  results. 

The  Constitution  of  the  Society  has  not  been  amended  since 
the  passage  of  the  law  creating  the  Board  of  Agriculture.  To 
make  it  conform  to  the  change  in  the  management  of  the  Socie- 
ty,  some  alteration  will  be  necessary,  and  perhaps  no  time  more 
appropriate  for  making  such  alterations  will  be  found  than  the 


present  meeting  of  the  members.  If  the  Society  should  conclude 
to  make  such  jilterations,  the  Board  will  sug^-est  some  additional 
ones,  which,  we  think,  will  tend  to  enlarge  tlie  sphere  of  its  use- 
fulness, unci  to  render  its  published  transactions  more  practical, 
and  give  them  a  more  reliable  and  authentic  character.  It  has 
formerly  been  the  custom  of  the  Directors  of  the  Society  to  ap- 
point Visiting  Committees,  who  have  traveled  at  gi-eat  expense 
to  the  Society,  on  exploring  expeditions,  the  scope  of  their 
observations  embracing  every  department  of  industry  through 
the  whole  length  and  breadth  of  the  State,  and  even  into 
adjoining  States.  These  Committees  have  reported  to  the  Board, 
for  embodying  in  the  published  Transactions,  with  tiresome 
minuteness,  wliere  and  how  they  went,  and  all  they  saw. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  the  benefits  derived  from  such  a  custom 
are  equal  to  the  necessarily  great  outlay.  It  is  believed  that 
the  objects  for  which  the  practice  was  instituted  may  be  attained 
in  a  much  more  reliable  and  authentic  manner,  and  with  com- 
parativel}'  little  expense.  There  are  men  of  ability  and  practical 
experience  in  each  particular  branch  of  industry,  in  ever}^  part 
of  the  State,  who  would,  no  doubt,  if  requested,  be  willing  to  act 
as  officers  or  Committees  of  the  Board,  in  collecting  and  report- 
ing to  them,  annually,  fticts  and  useful  and  reliable  information 
in  the  particular  department  for  which  they  are  qualified  and  for 
which  they  should  be  appointed. 

We  have  geologists  of  high  character  and  standing  among  us, 
whose  business  calls  them  to  a  constant  investigation  of  the 
geological  structure  and  advancing  development  of  our  mining 
regions,  and  whose  opinions  have  great  weight,  both  ui  home 
and  abroad.  Let  the  Board  appoint  some  one  of  these  as  the 
geologist  of  the  Society,  and  ask  of  him  a  practical  report  of  the 
character  of  our  dirterent  mineral  sections,  and  the  progress  and 
im])rovemcnt  annually  nuule  in  mining.  Such  reports  would  be, 
of  course,  brief  and  adapted  to  the  general  reader,  and  being 
published  in  the  annual  transactions  of  the  Society,  would  reach 
a  class  of  readers  who  would  never  see  the  elaborate  reports  of 
the  State  Geologist,  now  in  process  of  publication.  And  here 
we  think  it  not  impi-oper  to  remark,  that  while  the  General 
Government  is  directing  its  inquiries  and  investigations  to  deter- 
mine in  what  manner  to  manage  or  dispose  of  the  public  domain 
embraced  within  that  portion  of  our  State  usually  denominated 
minei-al  lands,  so  as  at  once  to  produce  the  greatest  revenue  to 
her  treasury,  and  be  of  the  most  benefit  to  the  occupants  of 
the  same,  perhaps  it  might  be  well  to  inquire  what  the  effect  upon 
the  future  wealth  and  iiulustry  of  the  State  Avould  be  wore  those 
lands  to  be  disposed  of  in  such  a  manner  as  to  invite  and  induce 
the  permanent  occupancy  and  cultivation  in  vineyards,  of  those 
millions  of  acres  located  on  the  hill  and  mountain  sides,  and  in 
the  countless  valleys,  which,  from  actual  experience  and  by  the 


8 

chemical  analysis  of  the  soil  and  the  favorable  atmospherical 
phenomena  are  proved  capable  of  producing  wines  and  raisins 
equal,  if  not  superior,  to  the  most  excellent  productions  of  the 
most  favored  wine-producing  countries,  not  excepting  the  cele- 
brated wines  of  the  Johannisberg  and  delicious  raisins  of  Malaga. 
Under  our  present  system  of  mining  regulations  andjaws,  veiy 
few  of  these  acres  will  be  thus  cultivated  until  the  title  to  the 
same  is  vested  in  the  cultivator.  Their  management  or  sale  be- 
comes a  serious  question  of  State  as  well  as  national  policy.  It 
is  the  interest  as  well  as  the  duty  of  the  people  of  the  State  to 
indicate  to  the  General  Government  the  proper  policy  to  be 
adopted  in  regard  to  them.  It  is  better  to  take  time  by  the 
forelock  and  control  and  direct  that  policy  for  our  own  interests 
and  the  best  interests  of  the  Government,  than,  when  too  late, 
to  condemn  a  policy  which  may  be  to  the  detriment  of  both. 
Every  de^^artment  of  industry  is  equally  interested  in  the  ques- 
tion, for  when  you  touch  the  mines  with  the  hand  of  oppression 
you  oppress  every  other  interest,  and  when  you  encourage  and 
stimulate  the  devolopment  of  the  mines,  you  encourage  and 
stimulate  every  other  pursuit.  In  this  respect,  if  not  in  the  ac- 
tual investment  of  money,  we  are  all  miners  and  all  cultivators 
of  the  soil.  A  Convention,  embracing  all  the  States  and  Terri- 
tories on  this  side  of  the  continent,  called  during  the  ensuing 
Summer,  for  the  discussion  of  this  subject,  might  lead  to  good 
results. 

Our  wine-making  interest  is  becoming  one  of  the  greatest 
industrial  interests  of  the  State.  It  excels  that  of  any  other 
State  in  the  Union.  Yet  there  is  not  perhaps  another  branch  of 
industry,  in  regard  to  the  practical  operations  of  which,  there  is 
so  much  ignorance  among  our  people  as  this.  The  varieties  of 
grapes  best  adapted  to  wine-making  in  our  State,  or  in  the 
different  localities  of  itj  the  chemical  properties  of  the  soil 
required  for  superior  wines;  the  atmospherical  influences  of 
different  localities;  the  manner  of  planting  the  vine  and  tilling 
the  vineyard;  the  gathering  and  pressing  the  grape,  and  fer- 
menting and  after-treatment  of  the  juice  or  must  until  it  is  con- 
verted into  wine — are  all  subjects  about  which  our  people  have 
but  very  little  practical  or  satisfactory  information,  and  upon 
which  there  is  prevailing,  in  all  our  agricultural  communities, 
the  most  lively  interest  and  intense  desire  for  knowledge. 

If  the  Board  Avere  to  appoint  some  competent  person  as  a 
chemist  to  the  Society,  who  would,  under  its  sanction  and  in  his 
official  character,  receive  and  analyze  for  a  fair  compensation,  to 
be  paid  by  the  applicant,  the  soils  of  different  localities,  and  the 
juice  of  grapes  grown  in  the  different  wine-growing  districts,  and 
keep  a  careful  record  of  his  operations,  to  be  reported  to  the 
Board,  and  if  at  the  same  time  they  were  to  enlist  in  their  service, 
as  Committeemen,  intelligent  and  practical  cultivators  of  the 


vine  and  wine  manufacturers  in  the  different  localities,  who 
Hhould  also  report  their  observations,  cx|)ei'if7K'e  and  opinions  to 
tlio  Board,  all  lo  be  embodied  in  the  piiblisiied  transactiuns,  they 
might  perhaps  be  able  to  form  some  well  defined  landmarks, 
whieh  ma}'  serve  as  incentives  to  enterj)rise,  and  guides  in  the 
jH'osecution  and  development  of  tiiis  i:;reat  resource  of  wealth  and 
prosperity.  If  successful  in  tlie  accomplishment  of  this  object,  the 
•Society  would  have  rendered  a  service  to  the  people  and  the  State 
greater  and  more  lasting  than  if,  by  some  sujiernatural  power,  they 
were  to  convert  the  whole  bulk  oi']\Iount  J)iabit>  intogokl  dollars 
and  distribute  them  equally  between  every  man,  woman  and 
child  within  her  borders. 

Tlie  present  anomalous  condition  of  the  general  stock-raising 
interest  of  our  State  may  well  attract  the  serious  apprehension 
of  and  engage  the  attention  of  the  political  economists  and  the  best 
business  minds  among  us.  The  annual  record  of  death  l)y  starv- 
ation of  a  large  percentage  of  the  stock  of  our  State,  has  become 
almost  as  much  a  matter  of  course  as  the  pei-iodical  return  of  our 
rainy  seasons.  During  the  unusually  dry  season  of  the  past 
Summer,  a  great  nuniber  of  stock  were  driven  to  the  mountains 
of  the  Sierra  Nevada  and  Coast  Eange,  where  they  found  an 
abundance  of  food  to  carry  them  safely  through  the  dr}^  season, 
but  to  return  to  the  valley  ranges  to  enrich  the  soil  with  their 
decaying  carcnisses.  Many  others  were  driven  to  the  low  land 
suri'ounding  the  confluence  of  our  large  rivers,  where  sufficient 
feed  for  the  subsistence  of  nearlv  half  of  the  stock  in  the  State, 
during  the  Summer  seasons,  has  for  years  past  been  allowed  to 
go  to  waste  annualh^;  but,  when  forced  from  these  luxuriant 
fields,  by  the  sudden  rise  of  the  waters,  the  san\e  destructive  fate 
awaited  them  as  did  those  from  the  mountains.  The  last  was  an 
extraordinary  season,  it  is  true,  but  if  the  owners  of  large  herds 
of  stock  would  pursue  the  same  course  in  ordinary  seasons  that 
they  did  the  last  they  would  nuika  a  great  improvement  over  the 
usual  custom  t)f  pasturing  them  on  the  same  ranges  tluring  the 
Summer  on  which  they  are  compelled  to  keej)  them  during  the 
following  Winter. 

But  to  reform  and  correct  the  evils  and  drawbacks  at- 
tending stock  raising  seems  to  require  a  pretty  thorough 
revolution  in  the  whole  farming  system.  The  owners  of  large 
hei-ds  and  flocks  will  be  compelled  to  reduce  them  to  such  a 
number  as  they  can  provide  Winter  food  for;  and  the  farmers 
who  have  heretofore  turned  their  attention  almost  exclusively 
to  grain  raising,  will  find  it  much  more  profitable  to  raise  a 
greater  variety  of  crops,  and  include  in  their  annual  sales  of 
the  products  of  the  farm,  a  few  young  horses,  fat  cattle,  sheep 
and  hogs.  The  statement  of  two  or  three  facts,  will  serve  to 
illustrate  the  extraordinary  and  disastrous  condition  of  this 
branch  of  industry,  as  it  is  now  seen.     During  tlie  last  Summer 


10 

when  it  became  evident  that  the  hay  crop  in  a  large  portion  of 
the  State  must  prove  a  failure,  and  consequently  command  a  high 
price,  many  persons  resorted  to  the  tule  lands  at  the  mouths  of 
the  San  Joaquin,  Sacramento  and  Cosumnes  rivers,  in  search  of 
the  desii-ed  article.  Here  they  found  thousands  of  acres  of  nat- 
ural meadows,  upon  which  were  cut  and  secured,  according  to 
statistics  collected  by  the  Secretary  of  this  Board,  and  careful 
estimates  made  by  men  of  good  judgment  engaged  in  the  busi- 
ness, not  less  than  fifty  thousand  tons  of  a  very  fair  quality  of 
hay.  According  to  the  same  estimates,  there  were  left  standing 
uncut  at  least  an  equal  amount.  Yet  within  sight  of  these 
extensive  meadows,  much  of  them  unclaimed  and  unappropria- 
ted by  anybody,  large  flocks  of  sheep  and  herds  of  cattle  have 
been  reduced  by  starvation  since  the  rainy  season  commenced 
from  twenty-five  to  fifty  per  cent,  in  numbers,  and  probably 
thirty-three  per  cent,  in  the  weight  of  those  yet  ahve.  Again, 
when  this  hay  was  cut  and  freighted  to  localities  where  princi- 
cipally  demanded  for  use,  the  expense  upon  it  per  ton,  as  a  gen- 
eral thing,  amounted  to  more  than  an  ordinary  stock  cow  or 
bullock  would  sell  for,  and  consequently  to  Winter  such  an 
animal  upon  it,  would  cost  more  money  than  the  animal  would 
sell  for  when  wintered. 

These  are  extraordinary  cases  in  an  extraordinary  season,  but 
to  a  certain  extent  they  occur  every  year,  and  to  the  full  extent 
may  occur  again.  To  prevent  such  recurrence,  and  to  bring 
about  a  healthy  change  in  the  management  of  this  branch  of 
agriculture,  are  objects  worthy  the  attention  of  those  who  may 
hereafter  control  the  transactions  of  this  Society  and  the  econo- 
mies of  the  great  interests  of  the  State. 

The  vast  amount  of  staging  on  this  coast,  and  the  transporta- 
tion of  goods  and  machinerj^  from  navigation  to  the  various 
mining  localities  in  this  State,  Nevada  and  the  surrounding  Ter- 
ritories will,  until  such  times  as  railroads  shall  supersede  these 
modes  of  conveyance,  continue  to  create  a  great  demand  for 
valuable  horses  and  mules,  and  large  quantities  of  grain  for  their 
subsistence.  To  raise  a  horse  or  a  field  of  grain  ma}'  not  gener- 
ally require  a  greater  degree  of  skill  than  is  possessed  by  any 
ordinary  farmer.  But  to  raise  and  prepare  for  market  a  large 
number  of  good  horses  with  profit  to  the  owner,  and  well  adap- 
ted to  the  business  for  which  they  were  intended,  requires  a  good 
degree  of  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  breeding,  the  economies 
of  feeding  such  animals,  and  the  judgment  to  apply  such  jsrinci- 
ples  and  economies  for  the  attainment  of  the  end  in  view. 

To  make  a  given  number  of  acres  of  land  produce  the  largest 
amount  of  grain  and  other  food  that  it  is  capable  of  producing, 
without  deterioration  of  the  soil,  for  a  series  of  years,  requires  a 
much  greater  degree  of  skill  and  scientific  knowledge  than  is 
usually  exercised,  at  least  by  the  generality  of  farmers  iu  this 
country. 


11 

The  truth  of  this  latter  statement  will  bo  apparent  when  it  is 
proved,  as  it  has  been,  by  statistics  collected  by  our  Secretary 
during  the  past  year  from  reliable  sources,  that  most  of  the  ^;raiii 
land  in  California  will,  when  Summer-iallowed,  produce  eig-ht- 
tenths  more  grain  per  acre  than  when  plowed  and  sown  after  the 
rain}'  season  sets  in.  Yet  not  one-twentieth  of  the  land  devoted 
to  grain  raising  for  years  past  has  been  Summer-fallowed. 

It  is  proper  to  remark,  however,  that  great  improvement  in 
the  nmnner  of  preparing  the  soil  and  putting  in  the  seed  this 
season  over  past  years  is  manifest  in  every  part  of  the  State. 
The  efforts  of  this  Board,  through  its  Secretary,  in  calling  the 
attention  of  farmers  to  the  importance  of  this  subject,  and  the 
drought  of  the  past  season,  have  both  contributed  to  this  change. 
It  is  hoped  that  hereafter  grain  raising  Avill  be  conducted  with 
greater  econoni}''  and  upoii  principles  which  guarantee  greater 
and  more  certain  success.  As  another  good  effect  of  the  drought 
may  be  mentioned  the  interest  it  has  awakened  in  many  parts  of 
the  State  upon  the  subject  of  irrigation.  The  experience  of  those 
who  have  practiced  irrigation  for  a  number  of  years  past,  proves 
that  most  any  of  our  lands  situated  back  from  the  river  bottoms 
proper,  and  which  have  heretofore  been  considered  capable  of 
producing  only  small  grains,  and  these  only  in  favorable  seasons, 
may,  by  the  judicious  use  of  water,  be  made  to  produce  in  abund- 
ance and  with  almost  absolute  certainty,  most  an}-  crop  embi'accd 
in  the  husbandman's  vocabulary  in  any  climate  or  country. 
This  experience  has  also  estsblished  another  important  fact  that 
the  best  and  only  time  necessary  to  use  this  water  is  during  the 
Winter  season,  when  all  our  creeks  and  rivers  are  full  and  capa- 
ble of  supplying  almost  any  quantity  desired.  A  thorough  sat- 
uration of  the  soil  at  this  time  serves  to  mature  any  crop,  or 
two  or  three  different  kinds  of  crops,  in  a  season,  Avithout  fur- 
ther irrigation.  The  people  of  the  counties  of  San  Joaquin,  Los 
Angeles  and  Yolo  have  been  the  first  to  avail  themselves  of 
these  important  lessons  upon  an  extensive  scale. 

C.  M.  AVeber  of  San  Jotiquin  county,  has,  during  the  last  sea- 
son, introduced  water  over  his  OAvn  land,  and  that  of  some  of  his 
neighbors,  with  the  most  gratifA'ing  results. 

The  particulars  as  to  length  of  canal  or  amount  of  land  that 
may  be  irrigated  have  not  been  received,  though  written  for 
some  time  since  * 


*NoT8. — Tlic  Secretary  received  on  tlie  day  after  the  annual  meeting,  from 
Dr.  Holden  of  Stockton,  a  letter,  of  which  the  following  is  an  extract,  and 
which  supplies  the  information  written  for : 

"  I  have  ascertained'  some  interesting  facts  in  regard  to  the  profitable  results 
by  irrigation  from  t'aptaiii  Weber's  ditches,  which  are  supplied  by  water  from 
the  Calaveras  until  June,  the  month  the  river  usually  dries  up.  The  several 
ditches  run  about  five  miles  and  irrigate  about  two  tliousand  acres,  or  tea 
farms,  small  sections  of  which  were  last  year  cultivated  to  wheat ;  the  bal- 
ance produced  oat  hay,  and  a  superior  article.     The  estimated  value  of  crops 


12 

By  meaas  of  a  ditch  and  reservoir,  eleven  miles  in  length, 
tapping  the  San  Gabriel  river,  in  Los  Angeles  county,  forty 
thousand  acres  of  land  which  has  been  hitherto  used  only  for 
grazing  purposes,  is  now  being  irrigated  and  converted  into  one 
of  the  most  fertile  portions  of  that  county,  already  so  justly  cel- 
ebrated for  the  variety  and  excellence  of  its  prodiactions. 

In  Yolo  county  there  are  five  main  ditches,  tapping  Cache 
creek  in  as  many  different  places,  with  an  aggregate  length  of 
twonty-tive  miles,  besides  a  great  number  of  branches,  all  capa- 
ble of  irrigating  at  least  one  hundred  thousand  acres  of  as  good 
land  as  the  State  contains.  jS^icholas  W^^coff,  the  engineer,  who 
located  most  of  the  ditches  in  Yolo  county,  and  the  engineer  of 
Swamp  Land  District  No.  18,  lying  mostly  in  that  county,  says, 
in  a  letter  to  the  Secretary,  <'  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  the 
waters  of  Cache  and  Fatah  creeks,  in  ordinary  seasons,  will  be 
used  upon  the  land,  and  not  be  suffered  to  pass  into  the  tules, 
except  at  high  floods — thus  assisting  to  reclaim  those  valuable 
lands. 

The  people  of  Colusa  county  are  also  moving  in  this  matter. 
They  propose  Jo  take  the  waters  from  the  Sacramento  river,  at 
any  point  above  low  water  mark,  so  as  not  to  interfere  with 
navigation,  and  turn  it  through  a  canal  which,  including  one 
main  branch,  will  be  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  in  length, 
over  an  area  of  some  three  hundred  thousand  acres  of  black  val- 
lej  land  in  that  and  the  northern  part  of  Yolo  county.  The 
scheme  is  pronounced  entirely  practical  by  competent  engineers 
who  have  made  the  j^i'diminary  surveys,  and  tlie  people  are  de- 
termined to  accomplish  the  enterprise  and  reap  its  benefits.  In 
view  of  these  facts,  and  the  probability  of  other  similar  enter- 
jDrises,  may  we  not  look  forward  to  the  time  when  most  of  the 
surplus  waters  of  our  creeks  and  rivers  during  the  rainy  seasons 
will  be  used  to  irrigate  and  render  imineusely  productive  all  the 
higher  lands  of  our  valleys?  As  a  secondary  though  very  im- 
jjortant  result  of  the  accomplishment  of  such  a  system  of  irri- 
gation, great  assistance  would  be  rendered  in  permanently  re- 
claiming the  tule  lands,  and  the  improvements  of  our  farmers, 
and  the  towns  and  cities  on  the  immediate  banks  of  the  rivers 
would  be  thus  relieved,  to  a  great  extent,  from  danger  by  over- 
flows. 

The  mechanical  and  manufacturing  industries  of  the  State, 
though  partaking  of  the  general  depression  of  the  past  year, 
and  suffering  somewhat  from  the  state  of  the  currency,  which 

on  the  two  thousand  acres  is  $25,000,  and  without  irrigation  the  crops  would 
have  been  an  entire  failure.  The  above  is  the  only  system  of  ditches  for  irri- 
gation in  this  county.  The  result  of  this  first  attempt  of  irrigating  on  a 
large  scale  has  been  so  profitable  and  sure,  many  other  enterprises  of  the 
kind  will  be  undertaken  in  this  county.  Californians  will  find  out  in  time 
that  water  is  not  only  quite  necessary,  but  the  cheapest  fertilizer." 


13 

lias  encourat>;o(l  importalions,  liavo,  notwillistimdinir,  oontiinifd 
to  enlist  in  tiieir  prosecution  a  gi-atifying  increase  ol' capital, and 
to  extend  their  enterjn'isos  and  scope  to  a  invent  variety  of  the 
articles  necessarily  used  in"  carrying  on  the  various  industrial 
])ursuits,  and  in  supplying  the  necessities  and  luxuries  of  every 
de]»artiiicnt  of  life. 

Leather  of  the  various  kinds,  boots  and  shoes,  harness,  sad- 
dles, -whips,  every  description  of  cordage,  building  materials, 
granite,  marble,  lime,  plaster,  cement,  wagons  an(l  carriages, 
railroad,  passenger  and  freight  cars ;  woolen  goods,  such  as 
blankets  of  all  kinds,  flannels  of  ever}'-  description,  cloths  and 
cassimeres,  carpets;  hats,  caps  and  various  kinds  of  clothing; 
glue,  asphaltum,  gunpowder,  matches,  tar,  ])itch,  resin,  mineral 
])aint,  8])irits  of  turpentine,  salt,  soap,  yeast  powders,  starch, 
vinegar,  pickles,  every  variety  of  preserved  fruits,  jams,  i-aisins, 
ligs,  maccaroni  and  vei-micelli,  castor  oil,  petroleum,  wines,  bran- 
dies and  the  various  kinds  of  spiritous  and  malt  liquors  ;  paper 
of  every  variety ;  glass  bottles  of  all  kinds  demanded,  eartlien 
and  stone  ware;  wood,  tin  and  wire  ware;  miniufr,  mill  and 
steamboat  machinery,  and  machinery  of  every  kind  in  use; 
agricultural  implements  and  various  other  articles  are  manufac- 
tured in  the  State  with  greater  or  less  success.  Very  many,  in 
sutKcient  quantities  to  supply  the  home  demand  and  keep  up  a  very 
good  and  remunerative  export  trade,  while  othei's  are  strufjgling 
against  the  persevering  competition  of  importation. 

Preparations,  upon  extensive  scales,  are  now  being  made  to 
add  to  this  li;-.t,  railroad  locomotives,  shot,  and  lead  pipe.  The 
experiment  of  smelting  copper  has  already  proved  so  much  of  a 
success  as  to  wlirrant  the  confident  expectation  that  all  our  cop- 
per ores  will  soon  be  smelted  within  our  State, and  thus])roducea 
complete  revolution  in  our  copper  mininginterest.  The  experience 
of  nations  proves  that  no  classes  of  industries  aid  moi'e  in  en- 
riching and  rendering  a  State  independent  than  mechanics  and 
inanutactures.  Calitbrnia  has  greater  natural  facilities  for  be- 
coming an  extensive  manufacturing  State  than  any  other  in  the 
Union,  and  her  isolated  position  furnishes  a  strong  reason  for 
fostering  and  encouraging  them. 

For  the  advancement  and  improvement  of  all  these  objects, 
and,  indeed,  all  the  industries  of  the  State,  was  this  Society  in- 
stituted. While  the  holding  of  annual  Fairs,  at  which  the  pro- 
ducts and  improvements  of  every  department  of  industry  are 
exhibited  for  comparison  and  instruction,  and  to  stimulate  emu- 
lation and  enterprise,  is  calculated  to  do  great  good,  and  should 
theretbre  be  continued;  yd,  for  the  tinancial  success  of  the  So- 
ciety, the  Fairs  should  be  made  to  assume  such  a  character  as 
will  prove  at  once  the  most  attractive  and  least  expensive.  It 
should  be  no  ground  of  complaint  should  the  Board  atlopt  this 
policy. 


14 

There  are  other  and  less  superficial  mediums  through  which, 
in  addition  to  the  one  just  named,  the  Society  may  render  i'self 
equally  beneficial  to  our  present  population  and  their  material 
interests,  and  enhirge  and  extend  its  sphere  of  usefulness,  so  as 
to  enhance  more  perceptibly  and  certainly  the  State's  future 
prosperity. 

Among  these  may  be  mentioned  a  means  already  adverted  to, 
the  appointment  of  competent  Committees  to  investigate  and 
report  upon  the  present  condition  and  best  means  of  improve- 
ment in  each  branch  of  industry.  These  reports  should  assume 
the  character  of  short,  practical,  and  to  some  extent  scientific, 
treatises,  wholly  Californian  in  their  character  and  application. 
The  Society  should  also  own  an  experimental  farm,  with  all  the 
facilities  and  appliances  for  practically  teaching  and  illustrating 
agriculture,  in  all  its  branches,  as  adapted  to  the  peculiarities  of 
our  soil  and  climate.  It  should  possess  an  extensive  mineral, 
mechanical  and  agricultural  museum  for  illustrating  our  natural 
history,  our  mineral  riches,  and  our  advancement  in  the  useful 
arts  and  sciences.  It  should  enjoy  the  advantages  of  a  philo- 
sophical and  chemical  laboratory  and  an  extensive  library  of 
useful  and  practical  knowledge,  for  exemplifying  and  explaining 
the  truths  of  science  as  applicable  to  the  various  industrial  pur- 
suits of  life. 

Add  to  these,  by  authority  of  law,  the  facilities  of  collecting 
agricultural  and  other  important  statistics,  in  an  authoritative 
and  authentic  manner  ;  and  the  Society  would  then  occupy  that 
position  of  usefulness  for  which  it  was  originally  organized,  but 
to  which  few  such  societies  attain  for  want  of  some  definite  aim 
and  some  constant  and  steady  hand  to  guide  them. 

The  official  management  of  the  Agricultural  Societies  of  New 
York  and  Massachusetts  have  respectively  been  under  the  con- 
trol of  B.  P.  Johnson  and  C.  L.  Flint  almost  since  their  first  or- 
ganization. These  Societies,  either  of  them,  are  an  honor  to 
any  country  or  nation,  to  say  nothing  of  the  States  in  which 
they  are  located. 

The  importance  of  reliable  agricultural  and  other  statistics  to 
the  successful  and  intelligent  conduct  of  a  Government,  and  to 
the  advantageous  direction  and  development  of  the  resources  of 
a  State,  arc  too  obvious  to  require  an  argument ;  and  particular- 
ly so  in  a  new  State,  with  resources  so  diversified  as  ours — and 
yet  we  regret  to  record  the  fact  that  Ave  have  not  now,  as  a 
.State,  and  never  had  any  83'stem  by  which  such  statistics  have 
been  or  can  be  collected.  In  older  and  more  thickly  settled 
communities,  with  their  superior  facilities  for  communication,  it 
has  been  found  practical  to  collect  such  statistics,  through  volun- 
tary agents,  who,  without  compensation,  excey^t  the  conscious- 
ness of  serving  their  countrj^,  devote  their  time  and  energies  to 
the  subject,  and,  under  a  system  of  reports  to  one  common  head , 


15 

produce  a  result  sufficiently  correct  for  all  practical  purposes. 
But  ill  a  State  where  tlie  facilities  for  travel,  except  on  general 
routes  to  a  few  im])ortant  localities,  are  so  limited  and  expensive 
as  in  ours,  and  where  so  few  of  our  farmers  have  become  so  per- 
manently fixed  and  devoted  to  their  occupation  as  to  inspire 
that  interest  in  the  cause  necessary  for  such  an  undertaking,  and 
80  few  are  able  to  afford  the  time  and  means  for  its  faithful  exe- 
cution, such  a  system  will  be  found,  as  it  has  already  been  found 
by  the  last  two  years'  efforts  of  this  Board,  almost  totally  inop- 
erative. The  present  sj^stem  of  reports  by  the  County  and  Dis- 
trict Assessors  to  the  Surveyor  Greneral  has  proved  to  be  equal- 
ly unreliable  and  uncertain.  Only  from  one-half  to  two-thirds 
of  the  counties  in  the  State  being  rei)Orted  at  all,  and  these  re- 
ports in  many  instances  beinj^  mere  rouiijh  estimates  instead  of 
actual  and  careful  counts.  Statistics  thus  partial  and  unrelia- 
ble, in  the  opinion  of  the  Board,  tend  rather  to  depreciate  the 
value  and  magnitude  of  our  industrial  resources,  and  to  injure 
and  prejudice  the  importance  and  standing  of  our  State,  both 
among  our  own  people  and  abroad,  than  otherwise. 

Witliout  narrating  the  history  of  the  efforts  of  this  Board, 
during  the  session  of  the  last  Legislature,  advised  as  they  were 
by  our  immediate  ])redecessors,  and  seconded  by  every  District 
and  County  Agricultural  Society  in  the  State,  to  rectify  these 
evils,  and  to  obtain  the  passage  of  a  law  w^iich  would  in  our 
opinion  have  provided  an  efficient  and  effective  system  by  which 
reliable  statistics  relating  to  all  our  industries  and  productions 
would  have  been  obtained,  we  will  venture  to  expi'css  the  hope 
that  our  next  Legislature  will  take  a  more  practical  and  com- 
prehensive view  of  the  material  wants  of  the  State,  and  will 
comprehend  and  supply  the  necessity  of  a  system  by  which 
through  the  proper  channels,  we  may  possess. ourselves  of  a  full 
sheet  exhibiting  all  our  productions  and  our  pi-esent  and  future 
capacities.  One  short  Statute  that  would  effectually  accomplish 
this  object,  would  be  of  a  more  real  and  lasting  benefit  to  our 
State  than  a  whole  volume  of  such  laws  as  usually  emanate  from 
each  session  of  our  Legislatui-e.  Upon  this  subject  and  the  ne- 
cessity of  State  aid  to  Agricultural  Societies,  Dr.  E.  S.  llolden, 
President  of  the  San  Joaquin  District  Agricultural  Society,  than 
•whom  no  man  in  the  State  understands  the  State's  necessities 
better,  holds  the  following  languaire  in  his  last  annual  address 
before  that  Society : 

"Last  year  this  Society,  together  with  several  other  similar 
associations,  petitioned  our  Legislature  to  apjiropriate  a  few 
thousantl  dollars  for  premium  money,  but  our  Solons  failed  to 
see  the  benefit  of  such  appropriations;  they  failed  to  see  that 
three-fourths  of  their  constituents  were  ])roducing  by  the  sweat 
of  their  brows  their  vexy  existence,  their  biead  and  butter. 
But  there  was  one  thing  they  could  easily  comprehend,  and  that 


16 

^vas  the  value  of  bribe  money  to  create  and  aid  a  host  of  rascal- 
ly  franchises,  yearly  springing  up  from  San  Diego  to  Siskiyou, 
from  the  Sierra  to  the  Pacific. 

*'  Farmers  and  mechanics,  protect  your  own  interests — those 
interests  which  contribute  so  largely  to  the  wealth  and  inde- 
pendence of  nations.  Elect,  as  it  is  in  your  power  to  do,  legis- 
lators who  can  comprehend  the  interests  of  Agriculture  and 
Manufactures,  and  who  will  honestly  protect  them." 

With  all  these  appliances  and  facilities  for  usefulness,  well 
managed,  the  published  reports  of  the  transactions  of  the  So- 
ciety would  become  most  interesting  and  authentic  exponents 
of  the  agricultural  capacities,  the  mineral  wealth,  the  manufac- 
turing enterprise  and  the  general  resources  of  the  State.  Dis- 
tributed among  our  own  people,  they  would  furnish  constant  in- 
centives and  valuable  guides  to  improvement.  Distributed  in 
the  Atlantic  States  and  in  the  rich  and  populous  countries  of 
the  eastern  continent,  they  would  serve  as  the  most  economical 
and  effective  agents  to  attract  immigration  to  our  State  that 
could  possibly  be  employed.  Teach  the  skilled  cultivator  of  the 
vine  and  the  experienced  manufacturer  of  wine,  in  the  agricul- 
tural portions  of  Germany,  France,  Italy  and  otherold  wine-grow- 
ing countries,  that  the  wine  crop  has  never  proved  a  failure  in 
California  since  its  first  introduction  by  the  priests,  150  years 
ago — that  owing  to  the  peculiar  adaptation  of  the  soil  and  cli- 
mate of  our  State  to  the  growth  of  the  vine,  and  the  average 
annual  product  per  acre,  here,  under  good  cultivation,  is  six 
hundred  gallons,  while  that  of  the  German  States  and  France  is 
not  over  one  hundred  and  seventy-five,  and  that  of  Italy— the 
best  wine-producing  country  in  the  world  outside  of  California 
— is  less  than  lour  hundred  and  fifty  gallons.  Teach  them  that 
there  is  in  California  over  twenty  millions  of  acres  of  the  very 
best  of  land  for  vineyards,  and  that  each  head  of  a  family  can 
become  tlie  owner  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  the  same, 
by  coming  here  and  settling  upon  and  improving  it — and  will 
not  such  information,  rendered  authentic  by  our  oflicial  reports, 
turn  their  heads  towards  California  ?  Will  they  remain  longer 
than  necessity  compels  them  in  their  own  country,  where  but 
fiew  of  them  have  any  interest  in  the  soil  and  can  obtain  but  a 
poor  subsistence  as  the  reward  of  their  daily  labors  ?  Teach 
these  facts  to  foreign  capitalists,  and  enterprising  and  skillful 
manufacturers,  and  they,  also,  will  seek  our  shores  for  the  profit- 
able investment  of  their  means,  and  a  more  adequate  return  for 
their  enterprise  and  skill.  We  should  soon  have  springing  up 
in  the  various  favorable  localities  in  our  State  extensive  wine- 
cellars,  the  owners  of  which  would  purchase  the  grape  or  must 
from  the  producer,  and  after  subjecting  it  to  careful  and  skillful 
treatment  for  the  proper  length  of  time  necessary  to  convert  in- 
to an  article  of  that  sujperior  quality  rendered  susceptible  by 


17 

the  iinoqualcd  Avine  properties  of  the  grape,  and  not  till  then, 
it  would  be  found  in  the  market  for  sale  and  consumption. 

The  immediate  ett'ects  of  this  chaniz;o  in  the  manai^ement  of 
our  wino  interests  would  be  a  certain  and  reliable  increased  de- 
mand for  the  grape  and  must,  and  a  proportional  increased  pro- 
duction. The  mere  grape  juice,  of  from  four  to  six  months  of 
age,  made  by  those  professing  but  very  little  skill  in  its  manu- 
facture, and  possessing  perhaps  less,  would  (lisapjjear  from  among 
us,  and  our  home  and  foreign  demands  would  be  supplied  with 
the  various  kinds  of  wines,  equal,  if  not  superior,  to  the  most 
excellent  and  high-priced  foreign  brands. 

A  very  large  })ortion  of  the  sugar  consumed  in  the  southern 
countries  of  Europe  is  now  manufactured  in  France  from  the 
common  Avhite  sugar  beet.  It  is  a  demonstrated  fact  that  this 
•article  can  be  pi-oduced  in  rich  alluvial  soil  of  our  valleys  and 
tule  land  in  greater  quantities  per  acre,  and  with  less  labor,  thtin 
in  any  other  portion  of  the  civilized  world.  By  chemical  analy- 
sis, science  assures  us  that,  owing  to  the  peculiarly  favorable 
properties  of  our  soil,  the  California  production  possesses  a 
greater  quantity  of  saccharine  matter  than  the  same  article  pro- 
duced in  an}'  part  of  France.  Taken  in  connection  with  the 
.present  and  prospective  high  ruling  prices  of  sugar,  Ave  have 
here  another  branch  of  industry  promising  a  liberal  compensa- 
tion for  skilled  labor  and  a  munificent  return  fur  the  investment 
of  capital,  managed  and  directed  by  the  lights  of  science  and 
practical  experience. 

The  cultivation  of  silk  also,  by  the  experience  of  competent 
judges,  for  some  ten  years,  in  our  State  has  proved  to  be  a  per- 
fect success.  The  mulberry  tree  flourishes  here  with  a  luxuri- 
ance knoAvn  in  no  other  country.  The  absence  of  moisture  and 
explosive  electricity  in  the  atmosphere,  during  the  season  of 
feeding  and  hatching  the  Avornis  and  securing  the  cocoons,  are 
circumstances  which  render  our  State  more  favorable  for  the 
prosecution  of  this  pleasant  and  important  branch  of  industry 
than  any  other  country  in  Avhich  silk  is  produced. 

It  is  a  historical  fact  that  the  seasons  in  the  principal  silk- 
producing  countries  in  the  south  of  Eui-ope  have  for  years  past 
])een  growing  more  cold  and  moist,  and  hence  less  favorable  to 
the  production  of  silk.  These  arc  significant  facts,  Avhich  may 
very  profitably  be  taken  into  account  by  those  Avho  are  to  con- 
trol the  future  matin-ial  destiny  of  our  State.  It  may  not  be 
improper  here  to  state  that  J .  Morenhuut,  Consul  of  France  at 
Los  Angeles,  lately  sent  five  samples  of  cotton  produced  in  that 
county  by  as  many  different  persons,  to  the  Minister  of  Agri- 
culture and  Commerce  in  France,  Avho,  after  having  the  same 
carefully  examined  by  competent  judges,  returned  in  his  official 
report  that  the  samples  Avore  all  identical  in  quality,  and  would 
command  then  about  the  same  price  as  the  short   silk  cotton  of 


18 

the  Southern  States,  from  §62  to  $63  per  one  hundred  pounds. 
The  experiment  will  be  thoroughly  tested  in  that  county  this 
year.  By  experiments  extending  through  a  series  of  years  in  va- 
rious parts  of  our  State,  it  is  conclusively  proved  that  raisins, 
figs,  almonds,  prunes,  olives,  all  articles  of  commerce,  and  con- 
sequently not  liable  to  overstock  any  market,  can  be  produced 
here  in  equal  perfection  and  greater  abundance  than  in  any 
other  part  of  the  world.  In  a  word,  to  sum  up  the  foregoing 
statements,  we  may  say  we  know  we  have  within  our  borders 
the  elements  of  greatness  and  prosperity  equal,  if  not  superior, 
to  those  of  any  other  State  in  the  Union.  Then,  what  do  we 
lack  ?  what  do  we  need  ?  The  answer  most  emphatically  is,  la- 
bor and  capital.  We  cannot  attain  mi^erial  greatness  or  jjros- 
per  well  without  these — without  both  ;  and  capital  for  invest- 
ment in  our  material  resources  will  not,  for  obvious  reasons, 
23rAcede  labor,  it  would  follow.  Then  labor  is  the  first  great  ne- 
cessity. And  how  shall  Ave  obtain  it  ?  The  General  G-overn- 
nient,  through  agents  and  the  distribution  ot  favorable  informa- 
tion, is  wiselv  and  successfullv  exerting  her  means  and  energies 
to  induce  emigration  to  the  United  States.  According  to  the  re- 
port of  the  ]SJ^ew  York  Commissioners  of  Immigration,  the  num- 
ber of  immigrants  that  arrived  at  that  port  during  the  eleven 
months  ending  the  30th  of  ^S^ovember,  1863,  was  146,519, against 
76,306  during  1862 — showing  an  increase  in  one  year  of  nearly 
fifty  per  cent,  from  extra  exertion.  But  does  the  Pacific  coast 
or  California  receive  any  portion  of  that  immigration,  or  any 
immediate  benefit  from  it  ?  Yeiy  little,  if  any  at  all.  The  mo- 
ment the  new  comer  sets  foot  on  shore  at  i^ew  York  or  any 
other  eastern  port  he  is  hurried  off  to  Illinois,  Indiana,  Kansas, 
or  some  other  new  State  east  of  the  Eocky  Mountains,  but  never 
to  California ;  hence,  those  States,  with  far  less  natural  advan- 
tages, except  as  to  convenient  location  for  immigration,  outstrip 
us  in  the  race  to  wealth  and  general  prosperit}'.  The  Pacific 
Eailroad  will,  when  finished,  to  a  certain  extent  remove  this  bar- 
rier which  now  isolates  us  from  the  great  center  of  our  country's 
population.  But  till  that  time  California  must  work  out  the 
problem  of  increasing  her  labor  and  capital,  and  of  developing 
her  own  resources  herself  Let  California  bestir  herself,  if  she 
would  not  fall  back  from  her  present  relative  position  among 
her  sister  States.  Let  her  make  independent  and  extra  exer- 
tions to  induce  a  tide  of  immigration  to  set  in  toward  her  shores 
before  that  great  field  for  enterprise  and  improvement  is  opened 
up  in  the  Southern  States,  to  attract  and  hold  the  tide  from  her. 
Let  her  send  out,  through  the  Golden  Gate,  such  a  flood  of  reli- 
able information  in  regard  to  her  unequaled  productions,  her  in- 
exhaustible resources  and  capacities,  to  those  great  beehives  of 
industr}'  in  the  Old  World  as  will  cause  a  Hvely  swarming  out 
of  their  families  of  workers,  so  intent  upon  securing  the  uu- 


19 

equaled  benefits  within  their  grasp  hero,  that  no  half-way  port 
will  attract  them  from  their  destination. 

Why  slioiild  not  the  route  from  the  various  emigratinf'  ports 
of  the  Old  World  to  San  Francisco,  by  way  of  Panama,  uecome 
the  line  of  attraction  and  travel  to  those  who  are  seeking  an 
asylum  and  a  home  in  America?  Bring  this  about,  and  our 
inarch  is  onward,  our  destiny  certain. 

To  assist  in  the  conveyance  of  this  information,  and  accom- 
plishing these  objects,  what  channel  so  appropriate,  what  means 
80  ettective  as  the  State  Agricultural  Society,  when  it  shall  occu- 
py the  position  and  enjo}^  the  facilities  we  claim  for  it  ? 

To  place  the  Society  in  this  position,  and  in  command  of  these 
facilities,  liberal  State  aid  will  be  required.  The  front  door  of 
the  State  treasurj^  will  have  to  be  opened  by  the  command  of 
the  people,  and  some  of  their  money  used  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  these  objects.  And  why  not?  Facts  and  statistics  arc 
at  hand  to  prove  that  no  people  ever  became  permanently  pros- 
perous, or  State  rich  and  powerful,  until  this  policy  was  adopted 
and  adhered  to ;  and  that  no  people  or  State  ever  adopted  this 
policy,  aud  continued  it  judiciously,  without  becoming  intelli- 
gent and  happy,  and  rising  high  in  the  scale  of  individual  and 
national  greatness. 

England  annually  appropriates  millions  to  auxiliary  societies, 
similar  to  ours,  for  the  encouragement  of  her  agricultural  and 
manufacturing  interests,  and  the  world  paj's  tribute  to  her  en- 
terprise and  prosperity.  France,  following  her  example,  has 
become  a  power  upon  the  earth.  German}',  by  earl}-  adopting 
this  policy,  has  made  herself  an  empire  of  knowledge  and  a  uni- 
versity to  the  world. 

Among  our  family  of  States,  XcAV  York  and  Massachusetts 
are  noble  examples  of  an  enlightimed  liberality.  Then  let  Cali- 
fornia profit  by  good  examples  and  be  wise,  as  she  would  bo 
great. 

We  did  intend  to  discuss  another  important  question  to  Cali- 
fornia— the  establishment  of  an  Agricultural  College.  But  the 
space  allowable  in  a  report  embracing  so  many  objects  is  not 
equal  to  the  importance  of  the  subject.  We,  therefore,  recom- 
mend the  ap])ointment  of  a  Committee  by  our  successors  to 
take  this  subject  under  consideration  and  report  at  some  future 
time  previous  to  the  meeting  of  the  next  Legislature. 

All  of  which  is  respectfully  submitted. 

CnAllLES  F.  EEED,  President. 

I.  N.  IIoAG,  Secretary. 


SYJS'OPSIS  OF  FINAXCIAL  EEPOETS  FOE  1864. 

Amount  of  cash  received  from  all  sources  (no  appro- 
priation from  the  State) $13,053  00 

Current   expenses §10,591  03 

Paid  for  warrants  on  General  Fund 2,461  97 


813,053  00 


§13,053  00 


INDEBTEDNESS   OP   SOCIETY. 


Amount  of  -warrants  outstanding  against  the  General  Fund,  Janu- 
ary 13,  1864 $18,526  55 

Interest  on  the  same  from  date  of  registry  to  January  13,  1865 1,220  82 


Indebtedness  at  last  date $19, 747  37 

Warrants  redeemed  in  1864 8,412  72 


Present  indebtedness $11,334  65 

The  Financial  Eeport  having  been  referred  to  a  committee,  was  found  cor- 
rect, and  adopted  by  the  Society. 

ELECTION. 

The  terms  of  office  of  the  President,  C.  F.  Reed,  and  of  Directors  Richardson, 

Beck  and  Walsh  having  expired,  by  limitation  of  law.  the  same  parties  were 
re-elected — the   President  for  one  year,  and  the  Directors  for  three. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Board,  held  immediately  after  the  adjournment  of  the 
annual  meeting,  I.  N.  Hoag  was  unanimously  re-elected  Secretary  of  the 
Board,  and  R.  T.  Brown  was  elected  Treasurer,  Vice  Coleman,  resigned. 

CONSTITUTION. 

The  Constitution  of  the  Society  was  materially  amended  at  the  annua] 
meeting.    The  more  important  changes  will  be  found  in  the  following  extracts. 

ARTICLE    III.— Member  ships. 

Section  1.  Any  person  who  has  during  the  year  1865,  or  who  shall  here- 
after pay  to  the  Funds  of  this  Society,  the  sum  of  Five  Dollars,  may  become  a 
member  of  the  same;  such  membership  to  expire  on  the  31st  day  of  the 
following  December. 

ARTICLE  lY.— Officers. 

Section  1.  The  Officers  of  the  Society  shall  consist  of  a  President  and 
nine  Directors,  who  shall  constiute  a  State  Board  of  Agriculture — five  of 
whom  shall  constitute  a  quorum.  They  shall  elect  a  Treasurer  and  Secreta- 
ry, not  members  of  the  Board.  They  may  also  appoint  annually  as  Officers  of 
the  Board,  a  Chemist,  a  Botanist,  a  Geologist,  a  Metallurgist,  a  Meteorologist, 
a  Zoologist  and  an  Entomologist,  and  define  the  duties  of  each.  They 
may  appoint  such  Committees  on  the  various  departments  of  Agriculture, 
Mining  and  Manufactures,  either  generally,  or  for  specific  purposes,  as  they 
may  deem  important  for  the  best  interests  of  the  State,  and  require  such 
committees  to  report  the  result  of  their  observations  and  investigations  to  the 
Board,  at  such  times  as  may  be  named  by  them. 


21 
IMPORTANT  BUSINESSS  OF  THE  BOARD. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture,  held  at  the  Secretary's 
Office,  on  the  22d  day  of  February,  1865,  it  was  detorniined  to  iill  by  apjxjint- 
iiient,  the  offices  named  in  the  Section  of  the  Constitution  last  above  quoted, 
and  the  Secretary  was  authorized  and  empowered  to  select  proper  persons 
and  make  such  appointments,  and  also  to  appoint  Committeemen  ia  the  sev- 
eral Departments  named. 

The  following  llules  were  adopted,  declaring  the  objects  of  such  offices, 
and  defining  the  duties  of  the  appointees. 

RULE    I. 

The  objects  of  the  office  of  Chemist  to  the  Board,  shall  be  the 
advancement  of  Agricultural  knowledge,  by  the  application  of  chemical 
science  to  the  qualitative  and  quantitative  analysis  of  Agricultural  materials, 
such  as  soils,  grains,  fruits,  manures,  etc.;  all  chemical  investigations  of  such 
officer  for  the  Society  shall  be  to  this  end,  and  shall  be  the  property  of  the 
Society. 

It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Chemist  to  give  upon  application,  his  written 
opinion  to  the  Board,  upon  the  adaptation  of  any  soil  to  any  particular  kind  of 
production,  and  vice  vcrsUj  or  upon  any  subject  pertaining  to  Agricultural 
Chemistry,  as  embraced  in  the  duties  of  his  office.  He  shall  keep  a  complete 
record  of  all  his  official  transactions  and  opinions,  and  shall  each  year  report 
the  same  to  the  Board,  together  with  such  suggestions  and  observations,  as 
his  experience  may  dictate  for  the  advancement  of  the  Agriculture  of  Cali- 
fornia. 

RULE   n. — OF    BOTANIST. 

To  obtain  for  record  in  the  transactions  of  the  Society,  a  full  and  popular 
description  of  the  botanical  productions  of  the  State,  both  native  and  import- 
ed. To  investigate  and  illustrate  the  physiology  of  plants  and  trees,  and  the 
adaptation  of  the  most  useful,  particularly  the  varieties  of  forage  plants,  to  our 
diff'erent  localities  and  soils.  To  discuss  and  teach  the  importance  and  means 
of  preserving  the  forests  of  our  mountain  districts,  and  to  induce  the  cultiva- 
tion of  woodlands  by  the  agriculturalists,  about  their  homes  on  our  rich  plains 
and  prairies. 

It  shall  be  the  dut}-  of  the  Botanist  to  labor  for  the  accomplishment  of  these 
objects,  to  assist  in  the  collection  of  an  herbarium  at  the  Society's  rooms,  and 
to  report  annually  a  lull  account  of  his  official  transactions,  including  such 
suggestions  as  he  may  deem  proper  to  make  upon  this  branch  of  the  State's 
natural  history. 

RULE    IIL — OP   GEOLOGIST. 

To  obtain  for  publication  a  description  of  the  general  and  Agricultural  Geolo- 
gy of  the  State,  with  particular  reference  to  the  mineral  and  agricultural 
advantages,  in  language  and  style  adapted  to  the  general  reader.  The  col- 
lection, classification  and  preservation,  at  the  Rooms  of  the  Society  of  speci- 
mens of  the  diff'erent  kinds  of  rocks,  minerals,  fossils  and  soils. 

The  Geologist  shall  report  annually  to  the  Board,  the  progress  of  his  work, 
and  make  such  recommendations  as  the  interests  of  this  department  may 
require. 

RULE    IV. — OP    METALLURGIST. 

To  keep  for  annual  publication  a  correct  and  official  record  of  the  various 
modes  of  mining  in  this  State,  and  of  reducing  and  separating  the  diff'erent 
kinds  of  metals  from  their  ores,  and  other  matters.  To  note  the  improvements 
made  iu  the  processes  of  such  reduction  and  separation,  and  also  tiie  improve- 
ments in  the  machinery  used  for  mining  purposes.     To  collect  and  place  in 


22 

the  Society's  cabinet,  specimens  of  all  kinds  of  ores,  and  of  the  metals  in  the 
different  stages  of  reduction. 

The  Metallurgist  shall  keep  the  record  and  perform  the  duties  above  indi- 
cated, and  report  annually  to  the  Board  the  work  performed,  and  give  a. general 
revieie  of  the  progress  of  mining  in  this  State,  and  such  statistics  as  he  may 
be  able  to  collect,  pertaining  to  the  same,  with  such  observations  for  the  gen- 
eral advancement  of  this  branch  of  industry  as  he  may  deem  important. 

KULE    V. — OP    METEOROLIGIST. 

To  keep  a  record  of  the  various  meteorological  phenomena,  such  as  the 
pressure,  the  temperature,  and  moisture  of  the  atmosphere;  also,  the  quantity 
of  the  rain  at  as  manj'  localities  in  the  State  as  practicable. 

The  Meteorologist  shall  keep  or  superintend  these  records  and  report  them 
to  the  Board  annually,  accompanied  by  such  practical  observation  of  their 
application  to  agricultural  operations  as  may  be  suggested  by  his  experience. 

RULE    VI. OF  ZOOLOGIST. 

To  obtain  a  description  of  the  animals  and  birds  of  the  State,  and  their 
habits,  particularly  those  that  are  detrimental  or  beneficial  to  agriculture 
and  horticulture.  The  collection,  classification  and  preservation,  in  the 
Society's  Museum,  of  stufFed  specimens  of  all  the  native  varieties  of  birds 
and  of  such  animals  as  may  be  deemed  important. 

The  Zoologist  shall  prosecute  the  above  objects  and  make  to  the  Board 
an  annual  report  of  the  progress  of  the  work,  including  any  recommendations 
for  the  preservation  of  the  useful,  or  destruction  of  the  injurious,  as  may  be 
called  for. 

RULE   VII. — OF  ENTOMOLOGIST. 

To  describe  the  Insects  of  the  State,  their  habits  and  peculiarities,  particu- 
larly those  varieties  destructive  to  vegetation.  To  collect,  classify,  and  pre- 
serve, at  the  Society's  Rooms,  specimens  of  the  different  varieties,  and  report 
annually  to  the  Board  any  observations  or  suggestions  upon  their  relations 
to  agricultural  economy,  and  the  means  of  preventing  their  ravages  by  their 
des^uction  or  otherwise. 

All  reports  indicated  above,  and  also  all  Reports  from  the  Committees  that 
may  be  appointed  to  report  upon  the  several  branches  of  industry  indicated 
in  the  section  of  the  Constitution  above  quoted,  to  be  made  in  writing  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Board,  on  or  before  the  first  day  of  December  of  each  year, 
so  that  they  may  be  properly  arranged  in  the  transactions  of  the  Society,  to 
be  reported  to  the  Governor  by  the  first  of  January. 

STATISTICS  FOR  1865. 

The  Secretary  has  carefully  prepared  blanks  for  the  collection  and  report  of 
Statistics  of  all  the  more  important  Agricultural  productions  of  the  State,  and 
sent  them  out  to  all  the  County  and  District  Assessors,  accompanied  by  the 
following  circular.  He  has  already  received  answers  from  a  large  number  of 
the  Assessors,  saying  they  will  clieerfnlly  comply  with  the  request,  and  the 
Board  entertain  a  confident  hope  that  they  will  thus  be  able  to  obtain  a  full 
and  accurate  table  of  the  productions  of  the  year.  They  call  on  the  Press 
and  the  public  generally,  for  their  co-operation  in  the  premises. 

[circular.] 
Rooms  of  the  State  Agricultural  Society,    ") 
Sacramexto,  February  7,  1865.  j 

To  the  Assessor  of : 

Dear  Sir: — The  State  Board  of  Agriculture  are  very  desirous 'Of  obtaining 
through  some  reliable  channel  full  and  correct  Agricultural  Statistics  of  the 
State  for  1865. 

They  believe  there  is  no  other  way  in  which  a  citizen  can  render  so  valuable 


23 

a  service  to  tlie  State  ns  in  aiding  them  in  the  nccomplisliment  of  this  object. 
They  also  bclicvo  that  the  Assessors  of  tlie  several  districts  and  counties,  from 
the  nature. of  tlieir  duties,  jjosscss  greater  facilities  for  collecting  such  statis- 
tics than  any  other  persons;  and  that  the  correct  business  habits  necessarily 
jjosscssed  by  a  person  to  whom  his  fellow  citizens  have  entrusted  so  import- 
ant duties  as  those  of  Assessor,  will  give  to  statistics  collected  tiy  him  tho 
stanij)  of  character  and  reliability.  For  the  above  reasons  the  Hoard  have  in- 
structed me  to  request  you  to  aid  them  in  this  undertaking.  Believing  that 
you  will  cheerfully  consent  to  do  so,  I  have  carefully  prepared  the  accom- 
panying blanks  for  the  collection  of  such  statistics  as  are  indicated  in  them, 
and  tiiuse  on  the  opj)Ositc  side  of  this  sheet  for  j'our  return  of  the  same  in  a 
condensed  form,  to  this  oflice.  None  but  the  most  important  and  easiest  ob- 
tained are  called  for.  The  number  of  acres  sown  of  the  different  kinds  of 
crops,  the  number  of  trees  planted  of  the  diilerent  varieties,  and  so  on,  you 
can  obtain  very  easily  by  fastening  the  collecting  blanks  in  your  assessing 
book  which  you  carry  wtth  you,  and  questioning  parties  as  you  assess  them. 

The  amount  of  the  productions  for  ISOo  you  can  not  obtain  for  the  reason 
that  you  will  have  finished  your  canvass  before  most  of  them  will  be  matured 
and  gathered.  But  as  you  are  canvassing  you  can  notice  the  appearance  of 
the  crops  and  by  conversation  with  farmers  generally  you  can  obtain  such  in- 
formation as  will  enable  you  to  make  a  very  correct  estimate  of  the  average 
bushels  of  the  different  crops  per  acre,  and,  having  obtained  by  canvass  tho 
number  of  acres  sown  to  each,  you  can  easily  estimate  the  whole  product  of 
your  district  or  county.  Hence  the  blank  return  sheets,  in  addition  to  the 
number  of  acres  sown,  call  for  the  estimated  products  of  18<l5.  It  has  been 
customarj;  with  those  who  have  given  any  attention  to  this  matter  heretofore, 
to  gather  the  joro^wr^s  of  the  year /)/-<'c«//;i^  the  one  in  Avhich  the  number  of 
acres  sown  or  jdanted,  was  gathered.  We  believe  tliis  custom  has  destroyed 
to  a  great  extent  the  value  of  the  tables  thus  formed,  by  apparently  depreci- 
ating the  productiveness  of  our  soil.  The  aggregate  products  of  such  an  ex- 
hibit, being  less  compared  to  the  whole  number  of  acres  cultivated  than  the 
facts  would  show.  Our  plan  will  correct  this  error,  and  by  continuing  it  we 
can  arrive  at  an  almost  positive  certainty,  as  ne.\t  year  the  assessor  can  gather 
the  actual  products  of  this,  and  thus  test  the  correctness  of  your  estimates. 

The  return  sheet  has  also  a  place  for  the  estimate  of  unenumerated 
productions.  Your  District  or  County  may  produce  articles  not  enumerated, 
which  you  may  deem  important  to  make  a  record  of.  If  so,  you  will  enumer- 
ate and  return  them.  There  arc  many  items,  however,  which  we  can  otitain 
from  the  United  States  Assessors  and  shall  do  so.  We  would  like  to  have 
you  also  give  a  concise  statement  of  the  general  resources  and  advantages  of 
your  County,  whether  agricultural,  mineral  or  manufacturing.  All  the  facts 
thus  furnished  will  be  embodied  in  the  reports  of  our  transactions  to  the  next 
Legislature. 

Now,  as  to  the  compensation  for  the  services  we  ask  of  you  :  Tiie  Board  of- 
fer a  )ireminm  nf  Fifty  Dollars  fi)r  the  best  statistical  and  descriptive  report, 
and  Twenty-five  Dollars  for  the  second  best — the  Board  to  be,  or  to  select  the 
Judges,  and  the  money  to  be  paiil  as  soon  as  the  reports  are  received  and  ex- 
amined. In  addition  to  this,  each  Assessor  who  shall  make  a  report  to  the 
Board  as  requested,  will  be  voted  a  member  of  the  State  Agricultural  Socie- 
ty, and  shall  receive  free  all  publications  of  the  Society,  and  copies  of  such  as 
are  received  of  the  (icncral  (lovernmcnt  for  distribution. 

The  Board  will  also  endeavor  to  obtain  from  the  next  Legislature,  and  they 
have  no  doubt  they  will  be  successful,  an  appropriation  to  pay  you  for  the 
services  you  may  perform  this  year,  and  an  annual  appropriation  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  such  services  in  the  future. 

Please  acknowledge  tlie  receipt  of  this  immediately,  and  say  whether  vou 
will  perform  the  duties  requested,  and  whether  you  liave  received  a  copy  of 
our  transactions  for  18G3,  which  we  mailed  for  you. 


37()r»59 


24 

If  you  need  more  blanks  at  any  time  write  for  them.     You  will  find  postage 
stamps  and  envelopes  for  your  correspondence  and  returns  enclosed. 

We  shall  want  your  reuurns,  and  we  presume  you  can  make  them,  by  the  1st 
or  15th  of  September.     By  order  of  the  Board. 

Very  respectfully  your  obedient  servant, 

I.  N.  HOAG,  Secretary  State  Board  of  Agriculture. 


TO    THE    I'EOI^LE    OF    <O.A.X^XFOT11STXJ>^. 


The  State  Agricultural  Society,  by  the  organization  of  a  corps  of  eminent 
scientific  gentlemen,  is  now  prepared  to  take  the  lead  and  give  aim  and  direc- 
tion to  the  development  of  all  the  various  resources  of  the  State,  by  the  ex- 
perimental and  scientific  investigation  of  every  subject  pertaining  to  the 
agricultural,  manufacturing  and  mining  interests. 

Also,  to  contribute  in  an  authentic  and  official  manner,  to  every  branch  of 
the  natural  history  of  the  State,  by  the  collection,  classification  and  preser- 
vation of  facts  and  phenomena  in  the  meteorological  world,  and  of  specimens 
from  our  geological,  botanical  and  animal  kingdoms. 

By  enlisting  the  co-operation  of  the  county  and  district  assessors  of  the 
State — the  assessors  of  internal  revenue,  and  business  men  generally,  it  is 
proposed  to  collect  and  preserve  a  full  and  complete  record  of  the  productions 
of  all  our  industrial  pursuits. 

Our  Chemist  and  Metallurgist,  Dr.  R.  Oxland,  Professor  of  chemistry  in  the 
Toland  Medical  College  at  San  Francisco,  is  prepared  to  make  correct  assays 
of  the  different  metals,  as  gold,  silver,  copper,  iron,  tin,  etc.  Also,  to  analyse 
difter<^nt  kinds  of  manures  and  soils,  and  petroleum,  asphaltum,  bituinen,  etc. 
He  has  had  a  large  experience  in  the  manufacture  of  sugar  from  beets,  and 
refining  the  same,  and  in  agricultural  and  manufacturing  chemistry  generally, 
and  is  prepared  to  give  instruction  in  all  these  departments.  For  any  work 
done  in  any  branch  of  his  department,  members  of  the  Society  will  be  allowed 
twenty  per.  cent  discount  from  the  usual  prices. 

Dr.  Kellogg  and  Prof.  Borlander  will  analyse  and  classify  any  specimens  of 
vegetable  productions  forwarded  to  them.  Prof  Borlander  has  given  much 
time  to  the  study  of  the  grasses,  and  Dr.  Kellogg  to  the  floral  department  of 
Botany. 

Dr.  Behr  may  be  consulted  upon  the  insects,  and  Dr.  Cooper  upon  the  ani- 
mals, birds  and  reptiles  of  the  State — both  having  given  these  specialties 
much  time  and  attention,  are  prepared  to  give  correct  information. 

Dr.  Logan  will  investigate  any  atmospherical  phenomena,  or  climatic  changes, 
to  which  his  attention  is  called.  Records  and  observations  heretofore 
pulilished  by  him  testify  the  soundness  pf  his  knowledge. 

The  above  gentlemen  have  all  been  consulted  personally  by  the  Secretary, 
and  have  each  accepted  the  position  to  which  he  has  been  appointed. 

Prof.  Whitney  is  not  in  the  State,  but  his  friends  give  assurance  that  he 
will  accept  the  position,  and  give  his  eminent  abilities  to  the  success  of  the 
enterprise. 

Committees  in  all  the  departments  of  agriculture  will  be  appointed  as  soon 
as  the  right  men  can  be  secured.  A  premium  list  for  the  Fair  of  18G5,  em- 
bracing every  industry  in  the  State,  will  be  published  as  soon  as  it  can  be 
completed. 

The  Board  call  upon  the  people  and  the  press  of  every  county  in  the  State, 
for  their  earnest  a,nd  practical  co-operation  and  support — and  they  doubt  not 
they  will  receive  it.  Geological,  metallurgical,  botanical,  zoological,  and  en- 
tomological specimens,  and  curiosities  of  every  kind,  are  solicited  for  the  cab- 
inet and  museum,  and  may  be  forwarded  to  the  Secretary  through  Wells,  Far- 
go &  Co.'s  Express,  free  of  charge.     By  Order.  I.  N.  HOAG,  Secretary. 


^ 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    000  552  336    o 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


^Ir^  X  @ 


DISCH 


lARGE 


URL 


OCT  3  Qf^SiS^ 


Form  L9-116ot-8,'62(D1237s8)444 


UNlVKkHiTt  erf  (jJ^AA^^HiitiiA 
LOS  aSGKLES 


